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Saturday, January 28, 2017

Ever
since seeing 'Rogue One' over the holiday break I've been having a wonderful renaissance delving into
all things 'Star Wars'. I feel like I'm eleven all over again (if only my hair follicles would follow suit)!

This
resurgent interest made me dig-up my copy of 'Star Wars: Armada' by
Fantasy Flight Games. For those who are not familiar with the game,
'Armada' is a fleet-level miniatures game, where players get to control
the huge starships and fighter squadrons that are so iconic in the
films. Rebel Blockade Runners, Star Destroyers, Mon Calamari 'Pickle
Ships', swarms of TIE fighters, you got it, they're all a part of the
game. It's super fun.

Our
group is just about to start a campaign using the new 'Corellian
Conflict' expansion that came out a few weeks ago. The guys are busy
creating their fleets and so I thought I'd add some colour to the
tabletop with some bits and bobs. What we have here is a pair of
critically damaged shipsfor set dressing. With these models, victorious admirals will have the
satisfaction of seeing their crippled adversaries drift across the table
instead of the original models simply being removed from play.

The Rebel frigate is hit amidships and begins to break apart.

These
two ships are from the Rebel Alliance. One is the famous Rebel Blockade
Runner, or CR90 Corvette, that was seen carrying Princess Leia in 'A New Hope',
and the other is a Nebulon-B Escort Frigate which was first glimpsed in
'The Empire Strikes Back'.

Both
of these models were downloaded from Thingiverse (thanks Danesgift!), tweaked/re-scaled,printed off
on my 3D printer and mercilessly bashed-up for effect. The stands are prints as
well.

Below are a couple raw prints, with all the supports still needing to be removed and sanded down. Yes, they are SUPER orange when they first come off the printer.

The explosions are 3D fractal models, designed by Aeron203.

I
re-scaled and sliced the fractal models to make varying sizes and
textures of explosions. I added some blown-out debris from thin
plasticard, and for the Nebulon-B I gave it a turbo laser hit (with a bit of painted steel rod) for a bit of drama.

The
raw 3D models above provides you a hint of the upcoming Imperial ships which
will be getting the same treatment - but that will be for another post.